22 Feb Maldives holidays with children in an eco-chic resort

Our Maldives holidays with our 8 and 11 year old children have been like a dream, ineffable. As a honeymoon destination I also find it ideal because it is very romantic. We stayed in a spectacular villa at an eco-chic Maldives resort called Six Senses Laamu on the Laamu Atoll.

Because it’s a long journey, we decided to do a combination of our family Maldives holidays with Dubai (I’ll dedicate another post to this peculiar city where everything is done on a large scale).

Key data Maldives

• Where are the Maldives islands: in the Indian Ocean. They are part of the Asian continent. Of its surface only 3% is land, the rest is water. It is located in southern India and consists of 1,190 islands that are part of 26 tides.
• Capital: Male. Looking at the city from the air I was surprised to see that Male is nothing more than a densely built dwarf island.
• The Population: it has about 340,000 inhabitants of which more than 100,000 in the capital. They speak dhivehi but almost everyone speaks English.
• The economy: its has 3 main sources of income which are tourism, fishing and shipbuilding
• Religion: it is an Islamic country and apart from the resorts, alcohol is prohibited. Be careful, you can not import or export alcohol so you shouldn’t put anything alcoholic in your suitcase
• For more information visit wikipedia

Maldives holidays all-inclusive; the organization of your trip

We usually organize our trips ourselves, but in this case with several stopovers and two destinations we decided to leave the organization of our Maldives holidays in the hands of Nuba Viajes, a Spanish exclusive and customized travel agency. They are experts, they listen to you and then organize your holidays adapting it to your wishes. We chose a Maldives holidays all-inclusive trip because being on an island where the entire surface is occupied by the resort and without any other alternative offer, we considered it the best option. We were really satisfied with the organization of everything. Highly recommended!!!

The itinery of our Maldives holidays

We were traveling from December 2 to 10, taking advantage of some public holidays in Spain. The advantage is that it is not yet high season:
Day 1: flight to Dubai
Day 2: visit Dubai
Day 3: visit Dubai
Day 4: trip to Maldives. The Six Senses Laamu is far from Male, so it takes a long time to get there
Day 5 to 9: enjoy the island
Day 10: very early in the morning head back to Madrid

How to get to Maldives, the flights

There are no regular direct flights from Spain to Maldives and it’s a long journey. To make our family trip of our Maldives holidays more bearable, we made a 3-night stopover in Dubai, which is 7.5 hours from Madrid. Also, the contrast between the cardboard-stone city (my husband’s words) from Dubai and then completely being immersed in the Maldivian nature was very interesting.

We flew in Economy class in an Airbus 380 of the Emirates Airways airline. It was a very comfortable trip with seats with more than enough space for the legs. Children and adults are entertained because every seat has its own screen with a wide range of movies, series, games, wifi …

From Dubai we took another 4 hour flight to Male, the capital of Maldives. From there the people of Six Senses accompany you, do the check-in, take care of your bags … The last flight of about 30 minutes takes you to Kadhdhoo, a mini airport on a mini island on the Laamu Atoll. Upon arrival they take you in about 25 minutes by speedboat to the resort (it leaves in front of the airport, a 2 minutes walk). And you arrive at PARADISE !!!!

Which resort for your Maldives holidays; the Six Senses Laamu

For your Maldives holidays there is a really wide offer of Maldives resorts. We explained to Nuba that we would like to be in a tropical island far away from everything in a hotel integrated in its environment (Robinson Crusoe kind of style but in a luxury version). They proposed the 5 star resort Six Senses Laamu and it turned out to be perfect.

It is an eco-chic resort built mainly with sustainable materials such as wood and bamboo and where they follow the environmental recommendations of Agenda 21 and Green Globe Benchmarking. A reward for the effort they put into this theme is the “Eco-Hotel” prize they have won in 2017 and which has been held for the 13th time in Hong Kong.

It is a quiet resort so if you are looking for some party time, this is not your choice.

The island is very small and is completely occupied by the complex. It is the only resort in the Laamu atalón in the south of the country. The vegetation is exuberant and there is only one circular path that runs through the island.

How to move around the island

To move around the island, you have bikes with baskets at your disposal . They are available in al kind of sizes; for adults, for children, to carry small children, with three wheels, … We even had our own initials on a wooden piece on our bike. It was really usefull because our villa was on the other side of the island. We all loved the biking to the common areas (about 5 minutes), it was absolutely beautiful! Specially when night has fallen it’s a romantic drive between the trees and the paths with it’s perfect warm lightning, like torches. I could have been biking all night long.

The philosophy on the island is not wearing any kind of shoes. A treat!  To avoid hurting your feet when going barefoot by bike, the pedals are covered with fabrics

A villa for your Maldives holidays

On the island there are 95 accommodations; one part are the typical bungalows located on the sea and others are villas on the beach.
For our family holiday at the Maldives they booked us a Beach Family Villa with Pool. It was located at the end of the island where there was practically no one. During the 5 days we stayed there, we saw about 6 people go by. I can alsmost say we had a private beach and sea. We thought we had one of the best villas on the island because of its location, the pool and its views of the beach (it was the villa number 82).

To give an idea of the interior and exterior design of the villa, there is nothing better than a small photo presentation:

Each villa has assigned a person for its personal assistance (GEM or Guest Experience Maker), who serves you 24 hours a day in case you have any questions, doubts, if you want to organize any excursions, make reservations a restaurants, etc.

Maldives holidays with kids

A family holiday at Maldives is the perfect plan. You spend the day together in the water of the pool, the sea, doing snorkling, resting and practicing other water sports. During their vacation, the kids also learn about other cultures, different food, practice their English, … In addition, most resorts have a Kidsclub so that adults can also spend some quality time together while the little ones are entertained.

If you plan to go to Six Senses Laamu with small children who can not swim, you have to be careful in the common areas. The charm of the resort is in its total integration in the environment and they have achieved that by building these areas on water with wooden walkways, restaurants without windows surrounded by water and without fences in many places. In the evening its a real pleasure to enjoy the restaurants quietly surrounded by a tropical environment, listening to the waves of the sea, seeing the stars and enjoying the tasty gastronomy. I would recommend hiring a babysitter some night if you come with small kids. Apart from that, it is a resort prepared to receive children and they are very well taken care of.

Kidsclub The Den

My 8 year old son has spent his days at the KidsClub The Den, he loved the place. They organize very diverse activities such as exploring the island and the sea to find terrestrial and aquatic animals, making biscuits and sorbets, creativities of all kinds, games such as treasure hunts and one night they saw a movie under the stars while eating a pizza. The girls that work at the club are adorable and really sweet. It is open from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

What to do during your Maldives holidays

Although I give a resumé of activities in our resort, I understand that in most Maldives resorts the offer is probably quite similar.

Snorkling: If you do not dive, no problem! With snorkling you can see all kinds of aquatic life. In front of our villa apart from little coloured fish we saw some small sharks (they are not dangerous and they are more afraid of you, so no worries). The most ideal place to do snorkling is the ‘in house reef’. I also recommend doing the 2 hour snorkeling tour. We visited 2 different areas and in one we saw several turtles and I was surrounded by so many fish of thousands of colors and sizes that I had the feeling of being in an aquarium. In the resort they can borrow you all the necesary material for free.

Pool: Our villa had a pool so we spent quite some time there but the resort also has a common pool (my son of 8 called it the municipal pool as it was for everyone?). It is an exotic surrounding that overlooks the sea and also has a playground with pingpong, petanque and the SipSip restaurant where you can have lunch.

Dolphins & sunset tour: this excursion lasted about one hour. While we watched the sunset and a fairly large group of dolphins they offered us some snacks and champagne and juice and cookies for the kids.
Swimming in the sea: the sea is beautiful with an intense turquoise color, the temperature is about 25 degrees and full of tropical fish. Once you enter, you don’t want to come out again.
Water sports: diving in Maldives should be amazing but I don’t dive. For lovers of this activity, there is a special diving center where they organize excursions. The Six Senses Maldives resort also has a surf school. In the Oceans Club on the beach there is equipment they borrow the guests for free (called complimentary) like the kayaks, which we took one afternoon, and paddleboard. By paying you can learn how to surf, do waterskiing, sail with a catamaran, etc.
Spa: we did not try the spa because we didn’t have enough time, nor did it have our priority but it is said to be of a very high quality.

Gym: the gym has amazing views. So no suffering when you go there! They also organize yoga classes; some for free and others by paying.

 

Gastronomy during your Maldives holidays

Fish, especially tuna offered in many ways, and rice are the basic ingredients of the meals in the Maldives. It is logical because of the influence of the closeby India and Sri Lanka. In addition, fishing is the second most important industry in the country. There is practically no space on the islands so as they can not maintain livestock or develop agriculture, they have to import many products. The curry also abounds in their dishes and the fruit was very tasty; they had amazing mangos and pineapples.

The restaurants of our Maldives resort

Our stay included full-board because on the island, apart from the hotel, there are no other establishments. The only thing that was not included where the drinks with the exception of the breakfast. Drinks are not cheap at all so this is something to keep in mind.

Breakfast

Breakfast was offered at the Longitud restaurant. It was a buffet with a wide offer of all kind of food from diferent continents and adapted to all kind of tastes. In fact, my son Adrián liked the Asian custom of eating rice and also started his day with this dish. I loved all the fruit juices and smoothies and, being next to Sri Lanka, they had high quality tea (I’m a true tea lover and I appreciate it when offered a good quality one). The first day we woke up too late for breakfast and they brought breakfast to the villa.

The restaurants at Six Senses Laamu

The cuisine they offer is international but in general it has a lot of Asian influences with curry, tuna, rice ….. Do not expect a big piece of beef sirloin. In all the restaurants there are children menus.

Longitud restaurant: In this two-story restaurant located over the water with magnificent views, an abundant breakfast is offered each morning, adapted to all tastes from the west to the east. At night it offers an a la carte menu of international food.

Chill Bar: This is the ideal place for some lounching during the day in its hammocks over the water and watch the sunset. From here you can also access the ‘in house reef’ for snorkeling. In the evening they offer cocktails and there is a DJ playing good background music, mainly soul from the 80’s (or at least when we were there). You can eat a la carte. They also put at your disposal a lot of table games which we used several times with our kids while we had a cocktail before dinner.

On the photo below this text with the hammocks of the chill bar you can see in the sea a change in the color of the water. That is a reef wall (it is suddenly very deep/steep) where we swam among a multitude of colorful fish and with nice and harmless sharks …

The Leaf: this is an organic restaurant surrounded by a vegetable garden. It is build on a wooden structure and you can get there by crossing a wooden bridge.

Zen: restaurante japonés.

Sip Sip: It is located in the common pool area and only offers food during the day. They have an oven to make pizzas, they offer delicious salads ….. There is a little bit of everything. We had lunch here everyday. In the meanwhile our little son enjoyed the swimming pool.

The ice cream bar: they offer 40 flavors of ice creams from morning to night. It is included in the price and they were homemade.

The wine cellar (or building): the Six Senses Maldives resort has a modern building (it was very cool inside) is specifically for storing wine, cheese and ham. The variety of wines is large and if you are interested, they offer tastings and dinners with special selections of wines.

The weather during your Maldives holidays

Normally from December to April it is the perfect time to go because it is the dry season. It is true that all the 10 days before we arrived, it had rained every day but they told us that it is an average. We had fantastic weather, it only rained 10 minutes in total. The temperature in the Maldives at this time of the year is somewhat less than 30 degrees during the day and about 25 at night. You spend days and nights in swimsuits and short sleeves. The sea has a temperature of about 25 degrees; like a bathtub.

Recommendations

Do you want to know more about Maldives resorts?; please take a look at this link, it can give you some hints the 10 best Maldives resorts ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

Be careful with the election of your Maldives resorts?. I do not refer to if it’s a 2, 3, 4 or 5 star resort but be careful with the location. Before going to the travel agency Nuba we spoke with another agency that proposed a Maldives resort much closer to Male (the advantage is it takes you less time to get there in comparison to where we went) but when searching the internet it turned out that on one side of the island of that resort you had views of an industrial area. Since you’re going so far and looking for paradise, I don’t think you want those views. Always take a look at Tripadvisor. It gives you many clues!!

We took our water shoes with us in our suitecase and when we swam in the sea in front of our house we always put them on. The water there wasvery shallow so fins were of no use here. There are many shells and pieces of coral with which you can hurt yourself. It is not essential but it is comfortable, specially with children.???

Neoprene suit or UV shirt for children (and adults): you are very close to the equator and the sun?  hits hard. We spent much of the day in the water between the pool, doing snorkling, just swimming. Although we constantly put on our sun cream factor 50, one of my sons burned his shoulders. We rent a neoprene suit for him for the snorkeling excursion (which also has the advantage that you float better and get less tired). If you can bring a neoprene suit or UV shirt from home, well, better. Buying an UV shirt at the resort costs about 70 dollars.

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Bon voyage!!!